TABLE 4.
Relative amounts of viral DNA present in TG during latency in rabbits infected with different doses of virusa
| Virus, dose | Rabbit tattoo no. (left or right TG)b | HSV-1 DNA (mean no. of genome equivalents) | Amt of viral DNA (mean ± SEM)c |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17ΔPst, 500 PFU | A3 (L) | 30,000 | 18,300 ± 7,888 |
| A3 (R) | 2,000 | ||
| A5 (L) | 40,000 | ||
| A5 (R) | 1,200 | ||
| 17ΔPstR (rescue strain), 500 PFU | A9 (L) | 800 | 12,200 ± 7,888 |
| A9 (R) | 8,000 | ||
| A10 (L) | 30,000 | ||
| A10 (R) | 10,000 | ||
| 17ΔPst, 50,000 PFU | A26 (L) | 1,200 | 10,750 ± 7,888 |
| A26 (R) | 1,800 | ||
| A30 (L) | 3,000 | ||
| A30 (R) | 11,000 | ||
| 17ΔPstR (rescue strain), 50,000 PFU | A31 (L) | 8,000 | 16,500 ± 7,888 |
| A31 (R) | 3,000 | ||
| A32 (L) | 15,000 | ||
| A32 (R) | 40,000 |
Rabbits were inoculated with the indicated doses of 17ΔPstR or 17ΔPst in both eyes. Total DNA was isolated from latently infected ganglia (40 dpi) and analyzed by PCR amplification with actin and VP5 gene primer sets. Data are from four TG per dose per virus per time point.
L, left; R, right.
Relative amounts of viral DNA are expressed as the number of genome equivalents of HSV determined following semiquantitative PCR for the HSV DNA polymerase gene and are standardized to the amount of cellular actin present in each sample. Standard curves were generated using known amounts of HSV polymerase target DNA in order to calculate the number of genomes present in each sample (see Materials and Methods). Means and standard errors of the mean (SEM) were calculated as described in Materials and Methods.